Hic perfidia uici ! Tricher aux jeux de dés à l’époque romaine

Abstract

Cheating practices in ancient games are not yet well known, but recent research carried on special dices with strange shapes, measurements and pip patterns throw new light on these illegal practices. Experiments and probability calculations allow some interpretations about the kind of the games in which they could be used. If the dishonest use of dice on which some numbers are doubled is debated, there is no doubt about other ones showing traces of structural modifications found in France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. The singularity of these eight bone dices is visible only by breaks, cracks, and absence of dowels closing selected pips through which the inside is carved and filled with dense substances. This paper aims to make a state of the knowledge about the different methods to crook a dice, to use it, and observes its distribution in the Roman society.

Keywords

• cheat
• crooked dices
• gambling
• lead
• mercury
• rigged dices